Ronnie James Dio
'''Ronnie James Dio '''was a Heavy Metal vocalist and composer, known mainly for his time in Black Sabbath and his own solo project, Dio. He died on May 16, 2010 of stomach cancer at 7:45 am at the age of 67, effectively ending to his 53 year musical career. The Westboro Baptist Church protested his funeral on the grounds that he was a Satanist. This is incorrect. Dio was an athiest, and therefore believed in neither God or the Devil, and consequently worshiped neither one. Dio is well known for popularizing the so called "Devil Horn" hand gesture. It's actually an Itallian superstition called the Malocchio, which is used to ward off bad luck. When Dio joined Black Sabbath, he needed a hand gesture that was different from the peace sign his predocessor Ozzy Osbourne used. His grandmother then suggested he use the Malocchio, which he did. Due to it's nickname, it was easily misconstrued by all the half assed bigots out there as being something related to the Devil. Needless to say, this is untrue. Despite the slanderous lies of his critics, Dio remained soft spoken and optimistic about his own life and the life of others, even until the day of his death. Many of his songs deal with the powers of good and evil like his song "Heaven and Hell," which Dio lauds as being his personal masterpeice. According to him, the song is a metaphor ment to show how each person has the power to chose between either good or evil, and that we all essentially have "Heaven and Hell" inside ourselves. Other songs of his with a message include "Throw Away the Children," a song which speaks out against child prostitution, and "Metal Will Never Die" (I betcha can't guess what the meaning of that song is.) The final song he ever recorded was "Electra." Timeline *Born July 10, 1942 *Ronnie and the Red Caps (1957-1967) *Elf (1967-1975) *Rainbow (1975-1980) *Black Sabbath (1980-1982) *Dio (1982-2010)﻿ *Heaven and Hell (2006-2010) *Died May 16, 2010, Age 67 Trivia *Dio attributes his powerful singing voice to his learning the Trumpet and French Horn when he was a child, which taught him proper breathing techniques. Dio was also able to play bass, guitar and keyboard. *Dio was offered a scholarship to the Julliard School of music, but he declined the offer to pursue a career in rock music. *Dio never planned on having a solo career. He actually wanted to form a new band with drummer Vinnie Appice after their departure from Black Sabbath. He named their band after himself for commercial reasons, and eventually it came to be known as his "solo" project. *The master track for his song "Rainbow in the Dark" was almost destroyed by Dio himself, but his bandmates talked him out of destroying the tape at the last moment. Today, it is one of his most enduring compositions, right along side "Holy Diver," which is widely accepted as being his signature song. *The last song he ever recorded, "Electra," was supposed to be on his upcomming album, "Magica II-III," which would have been a sequal to his 2000 release entitled "Magica." Category:Awesomeness Category:AWESOME PEOPLE Category:PEOPLE Category:Dead people Category:Win Category:Epic Category:THINGS THAT ARE PROBABLY DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH! Category:Things we can't live without Category:Things you can't live without Category:THE KIDS, THEY LISTEN TO RAP, WHICH GIVES THEM THE BRAIN DAMAGE Category:Holy Diver, You've Been Down Too Long In The Midnight Sea Category:Don't Talk To Strangers... Category:MOAR CATEGORIES!!!1!!2!11 Category:Rock n Roll Children